What the US needs is an extended break from the two-party system. Nothing spurs compromise more than having to or three possible coalition partners whom you can form a government with.

The problem in my opinion is not the manpower, there is enough political diversity in DC to found a dozen parties. Can it be that the concept of a two-party state is so engrained in the political consciousness, that it is somehow perceived as weird and even uncouth to want to have other parties to vote for?

I mean there are obviously tons of people dissatisfied with the way things are going, but how do they expect to ever do something about it if every election is a digital choice?! And hey, there might not even *be* a genuine choice if you live in the wrong voting district, thanks to gerrymandering.

So what do you get? A country where even moderates are accused of socialism and socialism is perceived as communism in drag. Is that thinking somehow a relic of the cold war or McCarthy-time?!

It always seems to me that public political discourse in the US is mainly black and white, and people react accordingly. The only inkling you get that shades of grey are also perceived is when you talk to people in private.

So now politicians who are stupefyingly pigheaded and unwilling to compromise are praised for 'sticking to their principles'.

I could go on but why ruin the last weekend before the next recession, eh?

We are at a point where either the banks, ratings agencies, and the new "supreme council of thirteen" in congress is going to triage the government and the American people, or the U.S. government and the American people are going to triage the banks:

30 MILLION PRODUCTIVE JOBS TO REBUILD U.S. INFRASTRUCTURE, INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE: THE PROGRAM TO END THE ECONOMIC DEPRESSION

It is a sad day for American politics. $1.9 trillion lost in the market in 1 day (Aug 4) and $1.7 trillion in additional interest because an agreement could not be reached on the debt ceiling 2 weeks earlier. Your article pointed to both parties and their entrenched positions but should have emphasized the onerous position of the Republicans to threaten default that frightened markets all around the world and exasperated the already global financial crisis. It is hoped the republicans will lose significantly for their arrogance in the elections and the democrats will choose more moderate democrats and clean their closet of dogmatically entrenched liberals.

This "Debt-Ceiling" is an Imaginary Number, that WILL continue to be Raised!
This Crisis they Concocted, to Extract MORE Concessions from this Craven-Congress, is (to say the least) Criminal!!
This Compromise, is Cantankerous!!!

This Has & Will Always be a REVENUE Problem, NOT a Debt or Deficit one.......

@ Jeff Watchman, remember that the U.S government supports Arab uprisings either whole or half-heartedly, even communist power plays in Central America, but if We the People tried such an act of so much as calling a time out, you can bet it'd be nothing but federal gulags for millions as justice for the treasoners with a heavy dose of suspension of Habeas Corpus for breakfast.

The dysfunctional Congress is set to become more so as further polarization results from heavily gerrymandered districts throughout the states. What used to be quite heterogenous districts are rapidly becoming more homogenous whether in rural areas, or large urban centers, and especially suburbs. The scope of the draftsmen State legislatures has narrowed even more so in that they appear to be seeking Congressional districts drawn upon communities of like interests rather than a mixed bag of regional interests.

Our modern economies, especially in the South are far too diversified to place "all our eggs" in districts that are so narrowly focused on one social ideology paired with one business-type interest, i.e. Hard-core social conservatives in a big-subsidy agriculture district or far-left social redistributionists in a decaying section of a highly-taxed steel mill city.

We need to broaden our districts to be based more on existing political or even physical boundaries rather than 10-foot wide and 300-mile long stretches of "representation." This will moderate the Congress and lessen the political brinksmanship and stalemate on each and every issue. Hell, we haven't had a budget in two years! But from what I am hearing from those in know is that, in my state anyway, they are going to remap the districts for even more radical polarization and they are getting VERY specific with the whole "communities of like interests" mantra.

To: GH1618
There has been plenty of time to fix the debt problem; if Congress had actually wanted to act. Obama entered the WH in a financial crisis, there was no budget passed in 2010 because they were waiting on the report of the presidential commission. That group was so motivated that it actually met once a month for eight months.
Coincidentally, the first draft of its report was not released until after the mid-term elections. The full report was available in December 2010, it was ignored. The first fabricated date for a debt crisis was March 2011 and that was announced in late January 2011. Club Congress just fiddled while the economy burned through the limit and did nothing until faced with another fabricated date - 2 August.
Other than secret meetings, nothing was going on, no debates, other than the ignored presidential commission report recommendation, the Ryan plan and a late in the game plan from the Gang of Six, there was nothing. No public debate.
Leaders take a stand and engage in vigorous, intelligent debate based upon core principles. We have no leaders; we have feral political animals rooting around for reelection votes. The debt deal is just more Congressional Hocus Pocus, accomplishing nothing to resolve national problems, but setting people up for reelection. They want us to thank them from saving us from a crisis they created.
There is no little blue pill to treat Congressional Dysfunction, only the ballot box. www.congressionaldysfunction.us

"Administration officials hope to persuade Congress to keep both (payroll-tax cut and extension to unemployment benefits) for one more year."

So if we are going to give money out for unemployment benefits anyway and just allow the recipient to sit at home and do nothing, not why give them the money and tell them to rebuild our infrastructure? Is it wrong to give they money and ask for something in return?

Second point I want to make is why president Obama would sign such a deal. It seems it wasn't a compromise at all on the republican side. When the republican held the debt ceiling as a hostage, the president should've executed executive order under the 14th amendment to raise it himself. They I would image could could really focus on getting a sound budget plan rather a rushed one that focus on raising debt limit.

To: Congressional Dysfunction
Well said! You made many excellent points.

To fix the Tweedeldee and Tweedeldum issue is very necessary and very hard. It requires changes to the way elections are held so that the stranglehold these two badly behaved parties have over the electorate is broken. When more parties are represented in Congress and the Senate and some Tweedeleers and Tweedeldumers lose their jobs the remainder should become more responsible.

We need more movements coming from the electorate themselves, more tea-party groups who challenge the status quo and push for changes to a true multi-party democracy that better represents the people.

The narcissistic and imbecilic twits in The US Congress could not fix a paper kite let alone the economic mess that the idiot boy king, Bush, set in motion with 2 wars and a big tax break for daddy and mommy (and of course the traitorous loony tunes Koch brothers!)

To be clear, there was never any risk whatsoever of US default as President Obama has power established by President George W. Bush’s Presidential Directive 51 to declare default a National Emergency and to set aside the debt ceiling limit and Congress’ power of the purse, and to continue to issue the debt necessary to fund the US government and its wars.

The US public debt is rising too rapidly against US GDP, although it is still below the percentages during World War II. The problem that is ignored by the idiots in Washington and the presstitutes is that the debt is rising relative to the economy because the economy is not rising, but war expenditures are.

Why is the economy not rising?

It is not rising, because it has been offshored. What formerly was US GDP produced in Gary, Indiana, St. Louis, Detroit, Silicon Valley, and other US locations is now GDP for China, India, Indonesia and other countries where manufacturing labor and professional services can be hired below US rates.

What happens with offshoring? The answer is clear. US GDP, consumer income, career opportunities, and tax base leave the country. Corporate profits and bonuses rise due to the lower labor costs.

Who is this good for?

The answer is that it is only good for Wall Street, corporate shareholders, and corporate management. Their incomes go up, and the GDP goes down along with the employment opportunities of Americans and the tax base for government.

While Jeffery Immelt was calling for manufacturing to stay in the U.S., his company was at the same time shipping manufacturing jobs overseas by canceling an order with an American-based wind turbine maker, ATI Casting Service in LaPorte, Ind., so that GE could instead buy the parts from a factory in China.

GE makes more medical-imaging machines than anyone else in the world, and now GE has announced that it “is moving the headquarters of its 115-year-old X-ray business to Beijing“. Apparently, this is all part of a “plan to invest about $2 billion across China” over the next few years. But moving core pieces of its business overseas is nothing new for GE. Under Immelt, GE has shipped tens of thousands of good jobs out of the United States. Perhaps GE should change its slogan to “Imagination At Work (In China)”. If the very people that have been entrusted with solving the unemployment crisis are shipping jobs out of the country, what hope is there that things are going to turn around any time soon?

The other destroyer of American economic prospects was the deregulation of the financial sector. Those, who like Brooksley Born, were empowered by US law to regulate derivatives, were driven out of office by the Federal Reserve Chairman, the US Treasury Secretary, and the Securities and Exchange Chairman.

Financial institutions freed from Glass-Steagall, freed from capital requirements, and freed from oversight, immediately took debt leverage on highly unrealistic bets to amazing heights. When the schemes collapsed, the Federal Reserve lent US and foreign banks $16.1 trillion dollars, a sum larger than the US national debt and larger than the US GDP.

Where did the Federal Reserve get $16.1 trillion to lend? The Fed created it out of thin air with a stroke of a computer entry.

And it is not only Americans who are being made homeless by US policies. Afghans, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Yemenis, Somali, Libyans are also consigned to homelessness by American policy. Moreover, America’s wars against these peoples together with the supporting military/security budget account for 75% of the US budget deficit. Indeed, the cost of these wars exceed the planned future budget savings from the debt limit deal.

Why won't the Republicans and Democrats listen when mega-billionaire Warren Buffett says that the tax rate on his massive income is lower than the tax rate on his secretary’s income?

The answer is that the Republicans and Democrats have an agenda: War. And they want to fund this war, not by taxing high incomes but by cutting support programs for the down and out.

Even if all the cuts actually happen, the weakening economy will result in new deficit projections that will wipe out the expected savings from the debt limit agreement.

The deal is not a comprehensive plan to fix the deficit because such a deal would not have been possible in the time required to act on the debt ceiling. The debt problem has been developing for almost 30 years. It will take about as long to fix it. It might not even be possible, given the nature of our political system.

We need an American Spring to right the wrongs. The world has changed but Washington hasn't. Since they don know better they will learn very quickly that they can't support 732 military bases all over the world, pledge to Norquist when they have duties to America, get our priorities strait like getting our public finances under control in a smart way. Times have changed American politicians haven't caught up. See what other are saying about America = http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,druck-778396,00.html